Unboxing: Centaurs
Review and comparison to Games Workshop Centigors
Box Contents
The RGD Gaming centaurs box set contains 12 centaur models across six sprues. Each sprue contains all the parts needed to make 2x centaurs. The first thing that struck me on opening the box was how small the horse bodies were. Being so accustomed to the gigantic war steeds of the GW centigors, I’d forgotten that horse bodies come in a wide range of sizes. Being closer to ponies than horses, I could tell there was no way these models would look right mixed in with the handful of centigor models I already own.
In addition, each box contains two faun sprues; one sprue with male fauns, and one with female fauns.
The Centaur Sprue: Bodies
Putting aside my initial disappointment at their size, I took a closer look at the centaur sprue. The horse bodies themselves are keyed such that they only go together one way, limiting me to only two poses. Variety between models comes in the form of 2x female bodies and 4x male bodies. However, two of the male bodies are identical, meaning there are only five unique variants.
The bodies themselves are decent sculpts. When it comes to arrow fodder, I’m not a big fan of excessively decorated models as the detail gets lost when the units are ranked up. The centaur bodies contain enough detail to make them interesting while minimising painting time.
As somebody that likes variety in my miniatures but dislikes having a mountain of leftover bits, the limited number of pieces strikes a reasonable balance. Personally, I would have done away with the duplicated body and included a shield option. Which brings me to…
The Centaur Sprue: Weapons
Weapon options are limited on the centaur sprue. There are two sets of hand weapons, one of which is duplicated, allowing me to field a pair of centaurs armed exclusively with a pair of axes, or mix things up by having swords and axes. There are also two options for a double-handed weapon. Sort of.
The first double-handed configuration is a sword that is the same size as the single-handed weapons but held in both hands. As somebody who is put off using double-handed weapons because of the tediousness of getting the arm to align with both a wrist and a shoulder joint, this was disappointing. If you’re going to make me line up those arms, the weapon needs to be impressive enough to justify the effort.
The second double-handed configuration comes with options. The arms and lower half of the weapon can be combined with 6x polearm variants to create spears, halberds and warscythes. Since these are all linked to a single arm set, I’m still counting this as one weapon option, as I can’t build two spearmen from a single sprue.
Overall, the weapon options are okay, but I’d be inclined to find alternatives from my bits box.
The Centaur Sprue: Heads
Each sprue comes with 2x male and 2x female heads. Unfortunately, they are a nightmare to photograph when all you have is a phone camera.
Head options are the one area where I do like some options on my miniatures. Only having 2x female and 2x male head options is a considerable limitation on modelling options, especially when considering the limited body types. Taking the centaur sprue in isolation, this is a real negative. However, the centaur sprue doesn’t come in isolation, allowing me turn to the faun sprues for extra variety.
The Centaur Sprue: Accessories
This one came as a surprise. I’m so used to cutting off extra bits from the sprue, dropping them in my bits box, and never using them, that I was surprised to find that there is only one accessory part on the centaur sprue. For those wishing to boost their protection, the centaur sprue also includes an armour piece to go over the join between the horse and human parts of the model.
I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
The Male Faun Sprue: Bodies
Each fawn sprue comes with three leg pieces and 3 torso pieces. In each case, there is a duplicate, meaning only four unique combinations are possible. Some additional mix and match options exist by using bodies from the centaur sprue. Given that the bodies are mostly pecs and abs with a varying baldric design, there’s not much to be gained from varying the combinations. Although this might upset some people, I’m okay with this level of variety. If you made male centaurs, there’s also the option to use the leftover female torsos to make female fauns (and vice versa).
The Male Faun Sprue: Weapons
The swords from the centaur sprue make an appearance on the faun sprue alongside some new additions. A double-handed axe adds some variety to the great weapon options, but it is the addition of a bow that is most appreciated here. It’s a shame there is only one bow as the size of the models puts me in mind of skirmishers, firing from the bushes, rather than assault troops. It also means that if I use the bow to convert a centaur, which I most certainly did, I don’t have any skirmisher fauns. Unless…
There are four spears included on the sprue that could easily count as javelins (one of the spears is being held as a throwing spear). It’s not how I would want to represent my skirmishers, but it’s better than nothing. The spears do present a much more appealing alternative to the fiddly double-handed polearm on the centaur sprue.
Given there is a double-handed sword on the centaur sprue, and it’s not that impressive a blade, I’d rather ditch the second great weapon for a second bow.
The Male Faun Sprue: Heads
The male faun heads provide two things lacking on the centaur sprue: variety and horns. The six heads per sprue provide some mix and match potential, and there isn’t a single head option that I dislike. As there is only one male faun sprue in the centaur box, I can’t tell if the head with the broken horn is by design or damage to the moulding, but horns get damaged in the wild so it doesn’t bother me either way.
Also, I haven’t cleaned the models so you can see where the parts connect to the sprue on some of the heads.
The Male Faun Sprue: Accessories
Two identical shields are included on the male faun sprue, addressing one of the shortcomings of the centaur sprue. With twelve centaurs in a box, two shields are not going to get me very far. As mentioned previously, I do view these models to be skirmishers, however, so shields would not be a prevalent feature. Would I elect to swap one of the shields for an extra bow on the sprue if given the choice? Despite liking the woven design of the shields, I probably would swap one for an extra bow.
Speaking of bows, the sprue includes a quiver full of arrows to complete that weapon option, along with a bundle of spears (extra javelins in my case), and a trio of armour pieces. My preference would be to use these armour pieces to make the centaurs look a bit tougher and keep the fauns looking lighter on their feet.
Finally, having skipped over the left arms of the models (except for the bow), we have an option to create a musician and equip one of the fauns with a horn. Sort of. If you don’t use any of the two-handed weapons, you have no choice but to use the horn as it is the third left arm with a hand attached to it.
The Female Faun Sprue: Bodies
Much like the male sprue, duplication is present on the female sprue for both the bodies and the legs. Part of me thinks a space saving could have been made by making the torsos and the legs one piece. Downside of that would be that you couldn’t make all the models in the box one sex if that was the case.
Female legs are differentiated by having a sash tied around the waist, but they are so similar that you could easily use them for male legs or fit the female torsos to the male legs to add some variety.
The Female Faun Sprue: Weapons
The two-handed weapons from the male sprue make another appearance alongside the sword carried by the centaurs and the male fauns. Instead of an axe, the female fauns appear to come with a peace pipe, brandished as a weapon.
There is another bow on the female sprue, but the right arm is not holding an arrow this time, and the bow arm is pointing ahead/down instead of to the side. Once again, that weapon ended up on a centaur, leaving me to equip my fauns with spears.
As with the male sprue, there are three spears held upright and one held in a throwing stance. The left arms are the same as the male sprue, providing a horn to make a musician, two empty hands and two arms that end at the wrist to match up to the two-handed sword/axe.
The Female Faun Sprue: Heads
Sticking with the pattern of putting the majority of the variation into the heads, there are six female heads to choose from on the sprue. As with the male heads, there isn’t a single head I dislike in the set, forcing me to find ways of using the spares for conversions somewhere. Some mix and match with the centaur heads to add variety was inevitable, but that left me with female centaur heads to utilise for conversions.
The Female Faun Sprue: Accessories
Another quiver and bundle of javelins appear on the female sprue alongside another two shields, but no armour pieces. Providing variation on the wicker shields of the male fauns, the female variant has a curved top. The second shield takes a more traditional shield look with its wooden texture. The only downside is that there are only two of them, making it difficult to put together a dedicated combat unit. Personally, this isn’t an issue as I’m going for skirmishers. It is also less bizarre looking when looking solely at the female faun sprue as the weapon options aren’t as heavily biased towards sword and shield builds.
Conclusion
A solid kit with a good balance between variety and having so many surplus parts you’ll fill a bits box ten times over. If you’re looking for highly-detailed sculpts to act as centrepiece models, this kit isn’t for you. However, if you want reasonably detailed rank and file, the centaur box ticks plenty of boxes.
My biggest complaint is that I bought this kit hoping to use them alongside my centigor models, but they are too small for that purpose. Ignoring that fact, they make for ideal models for a mongrel herd and centaur unit in a beast herd army. Some larger models would be needed to fill the role of a wildhorn herd.
Alternatively, the fauns would make for suitable alternatives to dryads in a sylvan elves force, bringing variety to the look of an elven force, with the centaurs counting as wild huntsmen.
The inclusion of the faun sprues defines this kits value as the centaur sprue alone lacks the variety needed for the box set to work without them.
Score: 7/10
These centaurs were made exclusively from the centaur sprue.
Using parts from the faun sprue creates a broader range of models.
Some join gaps between the torsos of my archer centaurs will need filling with some modelling clay.
Alignment of the great weapons is why most of my models don’t wield them. Fortunately, the gap at the shoulder was easily covered using one of the armour pieces from the faun sprue.
Unfortunately, the size difference is too big to allow me to use the centaurs alongside my centigor as a large unit.
The difference between faun and ungor is less of a problem. I’d be happy fielding these models together in a single beast herd.
